Warm-up laps after cold days

Just before the summer break, the political forces presumably face to face for the Angers municipal elections of spring 2014 wish to test their supports. On June 26th the mayor, Frédéric Béatse, gathered around 500 persons at Chanzy theatre. That meeting was unofficial. Three days later, it was up to the friends of Christophe Béchu, president of the Conseil général de Maine et Loire, the Ump (Union pour la majorité présidentielle) to invite its Angers members for a "Guinguette du changement" (open air cafe) for a similar meeting around the kiosk of the Mail gardens.

The Ump, whose Mr Béchu is member, launched an appeal to collect more signatures of the "Appel des Angevins pour le changement", a platform in which supporters of Mr Béchu urge that one to be candidate against the Angers mayor. The supporters of that "Appel" say they have already collected more than 1 000 signatures and wished, through the meeting planned on saturday, to gather more and trigger a dynamic favourable to the political change they want for Angers. It is not reported by local medias if that open air meeting attracted a lot of people.

The two main forces of the Angers municipal elections look to be ready for the frenetic pace that event will impose to the city in the months to come. Until now, Angers inhabitants seemed more interested by discount days which have just started under a (at last) sunny weather. The political platforms of the two camps are not yet known. From September, the city pedestrians will surely see other kinds of panels in the front sides of the Angers political stores.

Thaï L'inde, fusion of cuisine and history

Two foreign managers has lifted a veil on Angers past. Their new restaurant and guest rooms is about to open in Deux Haies street, a pedestrian way linking Saint-Laud street and Ralliement square. There, behind a  huge carriage door, Thaï L'Inde previsouly located at the bottom of Roë street, will soon host lovers of fusion cuisine.

If the settings already in the place looks surprising in that mansion built during the XVIth century, the atmosphere of its tiny courtyard, already embellished by a Viriginia creeper and soon a wisteria, reminds the calmness and the serenity of India's and Thïland people from where the new owners are coming from.

Walking along Deux haies street, one of the most lively way of Angers with a lot of exotic bars and cafes, it's strange to find out a so close haven. The Thaï L'Inde mansion is only part of a larger building previous owners separated in two without damaging the architectural cohesion of the façade. Inside, walls breath history with a lot of niches or marks of former doors of windows henceforth closed. The Thaï L'Inde cuisine is since a long time famous in Angers because of the succesful fusion of the flavours of India and Thaï fine food.

The Ralliement from grey to green

The event "Jardins d'expression" recently which Angers city sets up from June to September at the Pignerolle park is a supple-mentary testimony of the city council's will to make the town a symbol of respect and care for natural environment. A lot of awards have been granted for the action of the city through the maintenance of public parks and even cementaries. But the latest initiative, and surely the most visible, could be seen as a recognition that something could have been better devised.

The Ralliement square, located at the very core of the town, has been many times criticized for its cold and impersonnal atmosphere due to the omnipresence of stone on all the surface of the place. The (appropriate) initiative of the town council to enlive it during summer with flowers, greens and bushes will surely be favourably welcomed by inhabitants but will also live room, when the temporary event will be over, to its original and dark aspect...

That may lead town council, with help of residents, or down town store owners, to plan regular bustles a lot of persons, customers, retailers or simple pedestrians wish. Moreover, that place could become a kind of window display for tourists and attract purchasers desperately waited in times of bad (economic) weather.

Angers not endangered on financial issues, points out Le Point

According to a survey published on June 20th by the French weekly Le Point, Angers is one of the best managed towns in France. If the comparison between countries focuses on the level of national debt and solvency, the ranking of the French cites uses those criterias which point out the favourable situation of Angers. That city 's debt is € 1 539 per inhabitant, a better position than Nantes or Le Mans. And Angers has a good grade for its solvency, i.e. the ability to refund that debt.

Regarding some of the other criterias, Le Point considers Angers builts confidence. In the capital expenses who finance the facilities like swimming pool, theatre or industrial redevelopment, Angers gets the best grade (10 points). It is almost the case with the wage costs (€ 752 per inhabitant, a lower level in comparison with other Western cities). The structural rigidity of the town (i.e. the financial room for manoeuvre once all the expenses are paid) is appreciated by Le Point which gives 8 out of 10 . The only less favourable ranking is the local taxes (excluding companies) paid by each inhabitant : € 705.


Thirty eight towns of more than 100 000 inhabitants have been gauged by Le Point and Angers, is the third, equal with Le Havre. If these results are got in spite of economic difficulties, an improvement of the situation would probably make them better. So the city council knows what to do.

The new Angers mediator has got an approbatory verdict

The first year of the Angers' mediator has been examined on June 24th by the city council which quite largely praised the results that have been got. One of the major topics of the works led by Henri Poizat, in charge of that responsability, is related to the use of the public domain by inhabitants and professionals. More than 50% of the requests Mr Poizat recorded are linked to streets and pavements. According to the observations of the mediator, inhabitants (households or store owners) think that the works on those places are insufficiently announced and explained.

So Mr Poizat suggests that in future adjudications, the ability, or the will, of the purchasers to give informations about the works they have in charge, be taken in account by the city. The report published by the mediator measures a lot of complains from disabled persons, or persons with baby carriages, unable to walk on the pavements because cars are unappropriately parked on their way. It is not sure a new awareness campaign, the mediator suggested, will be sufficient to change inept behaviours.

The Angers mediator : Henri Poizat (credit : Angers city)

Such bad use of pavements are also a source of troubles for residents of specific districts around Les Greniers Saint-Jean or La Roë street because cars are often unappropriately parked when nocturnal events take place in Angers. The store owners also notice the rules for using public domain are for them a trouble : not because there are rules, but because those are changing continuously, what leads the mediator to suggest that stability would be appreciated.

Politcal swings around the Gipsy settlement

The Gipsy settlement is the topic of a new polemic between two important characters of the Angers municipal elections next year. The choice of the field where those travellers will be able to live during their temporary passings the city has fueled a fierce debate between Jean-Claude Antonini, Angers Loire Métropole president and Christophe Béchu, president of the Maine-et-Loire Conseil general, also likely candidate to the office of Angers mayor against the heir of Mr Antonini, Frédéric Béatse.

Credit Picture : Angers Loire Métropole

According to Mr Béchu, the project of the agglomeration suffers from two lacks. First, its location could lead to accidents involving children going from the camp to the Nelson Mandela school. Those will be "encouraged to join their school via the interchange [250 m] rather than the longer pedestrian lanes [1 000 m]", he said. The cost of the project is the other critic of Mr Béchu :  between € 7.5 and 10 millions even if the number of pitches will go from 32 to about 100.

The Angers Loire Metropole president pointed out that the cost will sum up €7.5 millions and will include all the expenses of the scheme. But because Mr Béchu is in charge of the implementation of the Gipsy's settlements in Maine-et-Loire, those people should be unintendedly at the core of a dispute what is a paradox given that their involvment in political campaigns is not their main characteristic...

The investment of Vegepolys in a new building should prevent the closure of the Inao bureau

Végépolys, community of professionals from companies, federations, consular chambers, research and training centres, all involved in the vegetable industry, will be set up, in 2015, in a new centre located between Angers and Beaucouzé. That building of 6 000 square meters will host more than 300 researchers and teachers what will enhance the Angers vocation to be a competitiveness cluster at national and european levels. The building will be called Vegetable Institute.

The construction of the place, entirely dedicated to research, will start next month and will cost more than € 20 millions granted by the European Union, the Pays de la Loire region, the Maine-et-Loire Conseil général, Angers Loire Métropole and France. Simultaneously, a Vegetable House will be erected, available in 2014.

Credit Picture : Vegepolys

Those major investments happen at a critical period for the Maine et Loire and Angers positions in the vegetable sector with the possible closure of the Angers bureau of the Institut national des appellations d'origine (Inao), what trigerred an unanimous protest of all the Maine-et-Loire representatives. That "association of companies, research centres and training organisations which commit themselves to a partnership approach aimed at creating synergies within jointly run innovative projects, aims to become a world reference for innovation in the world of plants". Vegepolys represents 4 000 companies and 30 000 jobs.

Angevine Music Day OK with UK

The 2013 edition of the Music Day ("Fête de la musique") will have in the city a very original touch. If the event has been renamed Angevine Music Day ("Fête de la musique angevine"), the bands registered for the concerts on the evening of June 21 at Ralliement square do not "sound" specifically angevins, even, not angevins at all. "I'm fresh! You are pretty!", "Headshake", "Noddings Head", "The Switchers" and "Black Bubble" are some of the groups which will perform on scenes set up in the central square.


Those are not the single UK flavor of the evening. In most of the bars and cafes in down town Angers (some of them having an English name : James Joyce, Matt Murphy's, Dublin), other bands will play that evening very different forms of music (The James Joyce will dedicate the party to "la chanson française" with Kass Rolls!). And in other places of the town, the inhabitants will be able to become initiated to dance and the city website sumed up these initiatives "Let's dance". No word of a lie!

That Music Days, sorry Angevine Music Day, will have (maybe) the favour of a clement weather (no London weather! Thanks) and surely a favourable calendar because the following day is Saturday. So the party should not be spoiled by the necessity to be back for work the very following morning.

The future Conseil général building entrusted to an Angers architect : roll on 2015!

The jury set up by the Conseil général de Maine-et-Loire about the project of a new building for that authority choose the angevin architect Frédéric Rolland. Mr Rolland, even selected after an unanimous vote inside the jury is not yet officially entrusted with the scheme. Such a decision should be passed on soon by the Conseil général members themselves but there is no doubt that those will confirm the stance of the jury.

Frédéric Rolland is a famous architect in Angers where he already realized numerous buildings like the Ecole supérieure d'électronique de l'Ouest recently inaugurated and the headquarter of the Ecole supérieure des sciences commerciales d'Angers or the Biopole. His cabinet is also involved in numerous project in China regarding stadiums and hotels.

Credit Pictures: Sodemel

The project of the Conseil général, once erected, will dramatically change the aspect of the Foch boulevard. The building will have six floors and will be located at the corner of the Foch boulevard and Saint-Aubin street. It was visible during the last few weeks among others in the Saint-Martin collegiat church where a exhibition took place an attracted numerous people. The construction itself is planned at the autumn 2013 and should be delivered at the end of 2015. The name of its first occupant, the president of the Conseil général, will not be known before the municipal elections next spring.

Severe deterioration of the Angers area employment market in one year

The situation of the un-employment in Angers Loire Métropole area has experienced a severe deterioration between April 2012 and April 2013. According to the last survey, "Le Baromètre Eco", published by La Maison de l'Emploi in June, the number of unemployed persons stood at 15 121, an increase of 19%. It seems that the youngest part of the population is the most severely hit given that during the same period, the number of people registered by the Mission locale angevine rose by 18% between the first 4 months of 2013 in comparison with the same period one year ago.

"The un-employment rate never stops to increase since the second quarter of 2011", notes the survey. At the fourth quarter of 2012, it went over the mark of 10% (10.1%), every time closer to the national average (10.2%). And in the temporary work branch, the contracts of umployment recorded the lowest figure since five years : 6 090 in 20
12 vs. 6 263 in 2009.

Credit Pictures : Angers Développement

According to the Maine-et-Loire Chamber of Commerce, the prospects are not reassuring. During the year ending in April 2013, the number of start up and buy-back companies decreased by roughly -15% and -6%. In industry, the order books are narrow and the manufacturing should not evolve in the months to come. In the commercial activities, the situation is stable and no increase is forecasted. The conditions are also stable in the credit activity.

The Euro week for Trélazé

There is something hopeless in France. An unshakeable opinion about the superiority of Paris over the rest of the country, commonly qualified by the French portmanteau word : "province". That kind of disdain is frequently conveyed by Paris medias which make the French opinion. It was recently visible about the Euro basket women 2013 edition organized in several towns of "province" and, among them, Trélazé, a neighbouring city of Angers. where all the French team is about to play the matches of the first round.

In an article published by one of the most important title of the French press,  Le Monde reports about the beginning of the  competition, that June 15th, in Trélazé, "dormitory town of th Angers suburbs"... Nevertheless, the choice of Trélazé and of other towns having the same size is not mere coincidence. The aim of the French bsaket-ball federation was to root that sport in medium towns during the European tournament. Even if those have little stadiums, it is better for the image of that sport that those facilities be full than empty.

For Marc Goua, member of parliament and Trélazé mayor, that competition is, for the city whose stadium Arena Loire (€ 24 millions) hosted a Great-Britain vs. Serbia match on Saturday (the first won)an extraordinary spotlight". All the seats for the French team matches are all sold.
, "

The first "Marriage for all" celebrated in Angers town hall today

It will not only be the first wedding between two persons of the same sex celebrated in Angers town hall long history. This is also the union between two people of different countries. One is French, the second is American. The law permitting the union between men or women is legal in France since about a month while the question is far from be solved in the United States where 17 states out of 50, each federate state having, instead of the federal state (those having the ability to legislate about that issue), allows marriage between men or women.

The celebration of that union follows months of disputes in Angers. The Quazar community of the city has been very active in favor of the opening of wedding for everybody. That stance was nevertheless be contested by other communities against the law about the marriage for all, France choose on May 17th. Demonstrations against that choice take place every Wednesday evening in Ralliement square with the "Watchers" and "Homen".

The Angers town hall didn't (yet?) communicated about that event which is now, from a legal point of view, just personnal matters. A lot of bridal ceremonies were planned that Saturday in Angers town hall : "Always a bridesmaid, never the bride".

The Angers city invites inhabitants to pay for love

The acquisition of the painting, "L'amour à l'espagnole", realized by Angers city during auctions at Sotheby's in November 2012 for € 240 750, is now the object of a cam
paign of donations. After that purchase, the Angers museums, through that appeal, are looking for sponsors. Their aim is to continue the purchase of others paintings formely own by a famous Angers antiques collector of the XVIIIth century, Pierre-Louis Eveillard de Livois, whose artistic belongings were passed down to some of his heirs still settled in France after the revolution.

The Angers museum of fine-arts has already numerous master works of the French XVIII century painting plans to organize an international exhibition on a characteristical French topic : love and seduction games. That event would gather numerous paintings of French famous artists like Fragonard, Watteau, Greuze or Chardin. "L'amour à l'espagnole" was painted in 1773 by Jean-Baptiste Leprince, a leading student of the great painter François Boucher.


The idea of a campaign for donations had already been implemented after the Royal home of the Angers castle was destroyed by fire. All the sponsors will be invited to a special "private evening" dedicated to the paintings of Leprince and the Livois collection. The cultural policy of Angers city, recently rewarded by a public financial institution, would have an opportunity to demonstrate its balance between low, medium and high income households.

Inao transfer : the decision postponed until July

Angers has got a deferment about the decision the Institut national d'appellations d'origine (Inao) planned to make on June 11th. But it should not go beyond a month. A press release of the Inao says that "a project of new geographical breakdown of the teams all over the national territory [involving] the gathering of sites [will lead to] a large consultation until mid July". Then "a modified project will be submitted" to the board of the Inao.

All the main Angers et Maine-et-Loire representatives stepped into the breach in order to keep an Inao agency in the department and among them, Christophe Béchu, president of the Conseil général. That one, satisfied by the deferment, is nevertheless not compleltely quiet : "A departure of the Inao from Angers would go against all the policies implemented to create synergies around vegetables. The identity of Anjou and of vine-growing would be at stake. I sincerely hope the good sense will prevail". He added the Conseil général will increase pressure on Inao board by voting in July a resolution about the upkeeping of Inao in the department.

The Inao is the French organization in charge of the regulations of agricultural products through Protected designations of origin. Controlled by the French government, its transfer towards a new location would be considered as a setback to the attractiveness of Angers and Anjou whose fame relies largely on local vine-growing.

The other "Terra botanical" of Angers

One of the characteristics Angers puts ahead in the field of communication is its n
atural environment. More than ever, the sustainable development has a central part in its policy. In urbanism, economic policy, education and of course tourism, the nature which surrounds Angers is wisely used as an asset. The city has also some magnificent gardens inside its limits and the most dramatic is the botanical garden, called the "Jardin des plantes".

Set up in 1790 and 1791, the place has all the characteristics of a English landscape park, a style which emerged in England in the early 18th century and spread across Europe, replacing the more formal, symmetrical "jardin à la française" of the previous century. The English garden displayed an idealized view of nature.


The Angers Jardin des plantes has all the elements of the English garden and especially an organization around a waterfall and the presence of points of view where painters would like to set up their easels. Pond, greens, beds of flowers and ruins are elements artists would love to paint. So the Angevins are to a certain extent
part of that nation of gardeners...

The Maine as playground

The poster has a fragance of the past. Swimmers slide in the middle of the waves and the foam. It could be a trial in high-sea but, in the background, there is the profile of a castle familiar to Angers inhabitants. The descent of the Maine will take place on June 15th for its 13th edition. The Aquarius club organizes that competition which, with others like triathlon or rowing, recalls to the inhabitants the Maine is, if the weather is clement, part of their "playground".

The sky triggered a change in the program. The Aquarius club originally planned two parts. The morning was dedicated to sportsmen on 2.5 km and the afternoon was due to be more peaceful but longuer : 4.5 km from Saint-Aubin island to La Rochefoucauld square. But, given the temperature, the medias reported lately that a single race will go from the Jean Moulin bridge at 2.00 pm and will finish at Tabarly embankment, 3.5 km further. Whatever be the formula, wetsuits will be compulsory.

Accroche-Coeurs 2013 : the West turn

After the 2012 Accroche-coeurs dedicated mainly to the English dimension of Angers through the Plantagenet dynasty, the 2013 edition will still keep an English speaking touch. The West is the headliner of the next street festival due to take place in Angers from September 6, 7 and 8. The programm has been disclosed recently in town hall by Frédéric Béatse, Angers mayor, with Calixte de Nigremont and Philippe Violanti, in charge of the design of the festivities, mark of the summer holidays' end.

If the definitive programm will be known in July, it seems that the organizers agree to make the Angers castle part of it as well as the surrounding area, including the Saint-Maurice cathedral. After the recent sports days, the designers of the Accroche-Coeurs will temporarily close the speedway below the castle what will contribute to point out the incongruity of such a road in the middle of the town. That will surely help to integrate the Maine banks reconsquest in Angevins' minds.

More than fifty free shows will be displayed during the event with dramatic diversions : the use of the castle as a vulcano and the Saint-Maurice cathedral as a lighthouse. It seems that, for the first time, a private company, Véolia, will sponsor one of the shows, consisting in a giant submarine, moored to the Quai embankment.

Illegal parkings in the lens of town hall

The problem was highly visible since months in La Röe street, and especially during the weekends. In spite of repeted warnings of Angers city and the fact nothing has never been set up along that street for vehicles, drivers still continued to park their cars on the pavements designed for pedestrians and cycles... So town hall, already reactive to give fines, is going to implement a new device : the video-verbalization. From september, cameras will observe drivers and  automatically will record their license numbers. The fines will be sent by post office to the owners of the vehicles.

If such a device, similar to fixed radars (whose existence is not always indicated to drivers), will surely put in order the traffic in that street, its implementation to more serious offenses than simple illegal parking would be justified... In such conditions, why the debate which livened up about video monitoring people in places where aggressions are common (railway station, squares, open air markets, school surroundings or streets where cafes host people until late hours) should not conclude that the device is the good way to prevent and help to punish more important offenses?

It is indeed less serious to park one's car on a pavement (sometimes for a moment or for emergency reasons) than to steal a wallet, to assault somebody or to deal drugs. Angers city, which announced several months ago that incivilities would be repressed is now led to put its will into practice.

Worries of Angers and Maine-et-Loire representatives about the Inao presence

The Inao Paris headquarters (Wiki)

The Angers agency of the the Intitut national de l'origine et de la qualité (Inao) worries the city, agglomeration and Maine-et-Loire main representatives.

The board of that authority will decide on June 11th if the Angers delegation located in Plantagenet street will be closed. The Inao is an orgnization charged with regulating French agricultural products with Protect Designations of Origins (PDOs) and is controlled by the French ministry of agriculture. Both Angers city and Angers Loire Métropole as well as the Conseil général expressed their disagreement regarding such a project.

All of them criticize that potential decision. According to the city and the agglomeration, "the Maine et Loire Pdo represent half of the total PDOs of the Loire Valley" and look very angry by the possible transfer of the Angers mission to Sancerre or Tours. For the Conseil general, "Nantes would not have any legitimacy to be the  flag-carrier of that activity". If such a decision was passed on, it would be a hard blow to all that authorities efforts. Indeed, after private companies disappearances, it would be the turn of a public one decided by the government.

The main Maine et Loire representatives, in spite of their political differences, wrote a letter to the Agriculture ministry to ask an adjournment of the decision which, if implemented, would be a supplementary indication that Angers has to improve its attractiveness. A petition is avalaible under Facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/l/FAQE_oRbtAQFMbdlzMGZWl5yy12yv2t6yhPr1KUSJG3tisQ/www.petitionpublique.fr/?pi=INAO49

The bad relationship between Angers city and a store owner on the front window

The tensions which, often, models in France the political relations regarding a wide range of issues, when they don't degenerate in violence..., can also be noticed now in the Angers public life. During the last twelve months, the debate between Angers store owners and the city representatives was already tough. It recently took a bitter tune through the remarks of a bakeries' owner and some of the members of the municipal team.

Since months, that one, Jean-Paul Gaboriau, published on his store front "La Grignotine" in Saint-Aubin street panels of remarks regarding the mayor, Frédéric Béatse as well as two of his town councillors, Jean-Pierre Chauvelon and Jacques Motteau. These visibly have not appreciated that kind of communication what led the city to file a complaint against Mr. Gaboriau.

Whatever be the judgement of the court, that one will not appease the worries of store owners due to  bad economic conditions for their turnover. And the electoral campaign which will start after the summer holidays will not ease the relationship because the candidates will probaly make higher bids to the store owners. It would be highly damaging for the city council, the retailers and their customers that the issue of the down town attractiveness and competitiveness not be dealt.

Ralliement square : the marriage which divides

If many Angers inhabitants believed the central square of their city was lifeless, they could change their mind thanks to the opening of the marriage for every people, whatever be the sexual leaning. But that the widening of civil unions is rather, in Angers as in many other places, synonym of... disunion of the people, some being in favor of that widening and others against. 

That division was clearly visible on June 5th in the evening on Ralliement square. Two groups of people were face to face in the bottom of the square between the tramway station and the fountains. There, a brass band of persons approving the law permitting the wedding for everyone played music against a sit-in of watchmen and watchwomen demanding the withdrawal of the law. Notes against words. It was like a game betwen persons preventing others to speak.  

A row of policemen, with dogs in some of their cars, separated to the two sides whose the most radical had a little fight sooner... That evening is the fifth to gather opponents to the law, but the first to degenerate, said witnesses. That day, the Ralliement square badly bore its name. 

Angers Loire Métropole new owner of the Technicolor site

Credit Picture : Angers Loire Métropole

After several months of waiting, Angers Loire Métropole, the community of towns around Angers, learnt on June 4th, that the former Technicolor site would become its property where it could undertake a reindustrialization. The bankrupcy judge of Nanterre has decided the transfer of property of the area from the Technicolor group to the Angers authority. That one will have to accept that purchase on June 13th for a cost of € 6.5 millions instead of € 14 millions as it was previously offered.

If the Angers Loire Métropole are now free to devise a project, they will have also the time to do so. The surface, 13,5 ha, is much more important than necessary to host the two, maybe three companies which announced they will set up there a subcontraction activity. Regarding the employment perspectives, they are presently limited to 80 persons, a figure well below of the last 300 Technicolor employees who left that site in October 2012. The Angers Loire Métropole authority also bought the industrial equipment for € 1 million.

It is difficult to predict if the reindustrialization project will use all the surface. Formerly located at the border of Angers when it was erected, the factory is, more than 50 years later, completely surrounded by residential area. So it is not impossible that part of if could be used for other purposes what the Angers Loire Métropole representatives have always denied. Regarding the reindustrialization, "We just have jump over a new step and still working on", said Daniel Loiseau, in charge of economy at Alm.

The Angers centre parties look divided

The preliminary noises of the Angers municipal elections of spring 2014 become more and more audible. But the different platforms are not visible. And that is the problem : the electoral alliances start before the idea they have to promote... But the assessment is above valuable for the center part of the chessboard : precisely between the Union des démocrates indépendants (Udi) and the Mouvement des démocrates (Modem).

If Udi and Modem agree on the fact they can damage the outlook of success for Christophe Béchu, likely candidate to the office of Angers mayor, they do not measure they are a secondary force for the second round of municipal polls and do not look to be aware that their common impact is rather weak if they competete separately.

The candidate the Udi choose to compete during the next municipal campaign is Laurent Gérault, Angers town councillor, recently blacklisted by the members of the minority group at the town council. But that one has not the confidence of the members of the current centrist opposition members in that assembly who choose Bernard Dupré, member of the Modem...

All the political elements of the 2014 elections will have to make clear their intentions which seems rather different from the issues the Angevins want the next town council to tackle.

Shot in Angers, "Demi-soeur" directed by Josiane Balasko, soon in the cinemas

Within a few days, cinemas will screen "Demi-soeur", a movie directed by the French actress Josiane Balasko, partly shot in Angers in June 2012. "Demi-soeur" tells the story of a woman of 60 years old, Nénette, mentally disabled, who discovers she has a half-brother. That one, performed by Michel Blanc, is a chemist and lives in... Angers.

The film crew shot the Angers scenes of the movie in the historic district of the Cité (Bout du monde walkway and Donadieu de Puycharic street)  and at Saint-Laud railway station. Josiane Balako and her technicians (the were fifty) worked mainly by night. The scenes needed some authorizations of town hall given the use of public places and the presence of noise during the shot.

According to the studio manager, the shooting was a "real pleasure" because all the official authorizations were granted immediately. The Angers mayor, Frédéric Béatse, met the film crew. The previous movie shot in Angers region was "La princesse de Montpensier", directed by Bertrand Tavernier.

Wedding for all : in Angers, the Hommen don't say Amen

Credit Picture : Hommen website

Angers down town streets looked to ressuscitate the past on May 25th at night. About 30 men marching in two rows, their chests undressed, white masks covering part of their faces walked silently. That parade, illuminated by torches and reinforced by stores fronts between the Prefecture mall and the Ralliement square, released a reverential atmosphere : attractive, but, at the same time, cumbersome.

The Hommen members claimed their fierce opposition to the recent law opening the wedding in France to people of the same sex. The movement (contraction of the French word "Hommes" and the English one "Men"?) was constituted because the "Demonstration for all", which took place on March 24th, triggered police violences against some of the participants, they say on their website. The Hommen think the majority of French people is silenced and the project should have been submitted to a referendum.

After their demonstration in the Ralliement square, the Hommen walked towards the Roi René boulevard they obstructed before the intervention of the Angers police. A new demonstration took place five days later.